Be it depositing electricity bills or examination fees, e-government offers a hassle-free solution by replacing lengthy queues and insolent government employees with computerised single window Bill collection centres. Consider for instance: friends (Fast, Reliable, Instant, Efficient, Network for Disbursement of Services), a Kerala government initiative, which enables computerised remittances of electricity, telephone, water bills and examination fees under a single window.
Or for that matter, the drive to computerise land records in Karnataka called 'Bhoomi' instead of paying bribes or facing harassment, the farmers now simply shell out Rs 15 to obtain a copy of record of Rights, Tenancy and Crops (RTC).
Voice (Vijaywada Online Information Centre), provides a similar breath of fresh air in reducing corruption and red-tapism. It delivers birth and death certificates, handles collection of water and sewerage taxes.
'e-Government: From Vision To Implementation' authored by Subhash Bhatnagar is based on the analysis of two dozen such case studies from 16 countries in the developing world where e-Government has been implemented to address social and economic development challenges.
"Although e-Government can be a catalyst for change, it is not a complete solution," says Bhatnagar, a professor of information systems at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.
It must be part of broader commitment to reform the public sector, says the author adding three factors are critical for successful implementation of e-Government.
These include willingness to reform, availability of Information Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure, and the institutional capacity to absorb and manage change.
This book, while analysing the trends that have emerged in developing countries, seeks to understand how e-Government is used to further development and reform goals.
As against the widely held perception, e-Government is different from e-Governance, the author explains.
"e-Governance is the use of ICT by the government, civil society and political institutions to engage citizens through dialogue and feed back to promote greater participation in the process of governance of these institutions. For example, e-Governance covers the use of the Internet by politicians and political parties to elicit views from their constituencies.
"However, e-Government can be viewed as a subset of e-Governance and its focus is largely on improving administrative efficiency and reducing administrative corruption," says the book.
Traditionally, the interaction between citizens and a government agency took place in a government office. With emerging information and communication technologies it is possible to locate service centers closer to the clients.
Quelle: The Financial Express, 06.01.2005
